<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Guard my heart with your heart by LouiseLouise</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067361">Guard my heart with your heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouiseLouise/pseuds/LouiseLouise'>LouiseLouise</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>9-1-1 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, August Writing Challenge, Bodyguard Buck, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Singer Eddie, very light angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:13:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,611</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouiseLouise/pseuds/LouiseLouise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Buck started as Eddie’s bodyguard but somewhere along the way they became friends. Just friends. But maybe that’s not what either of them want.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>149</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AUgust 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Guard my heart with your heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for <a href="https://augustwritingchallenge.tumblr.com/post/621653119656493056/the-list-of-prompts-was-completed-one-prompt-per">AUgust writing Challenge</a>. Day 18 is: Bodyguard AU.</p><p>Just so you're not disappointed, know that this doesn't have a lot of actual bodyguard action in it.</p><p>Thank you <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/marciaelena">marciaelena</a> for the beta, the patience and support! All remaining mistakes are mine, English is not my first language.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Again? Buck, seriously, you lost your job again? How?”</p><p>Buck knows Eddie’s not really judging him, that it’s probably just worry. Either way it makes him feel terrible. He never meant for his reckless behavior to have an impact on his friend. Plus it’s just a job, it’s not that big of a deal. He’d rather not talk about it, though, so he shrugs, hoping his detached attitude is convincing enough for Eddie to let go.</p><p>“I don’t care, I’ll find something else,” he says, but Eddie’s not listening. </p><p>He’s searching for something on his phone, eyes locked on its screen. “Evan.” Eddie sighs and holds out his hand, shoving his phone under Buck’s nose. “Next time you want to fuck the client you’re tasked to protect maybe don’t get caught?” </p><p>Buck scans the page that Eddie’s pulled up on his phone. The title in all red letters isn’t subtle, but at least his face doesn’t show in the pixelated picture someone got from the security footage of that club.</p><p>“Or even better, maybe don’t fuck your next client? Focus on protecting them, you know, since that’s kind of what bodyguards do?”</p><p>“Oh, that’s rich, knowing how we met,” Buck snorts. It’s a low blow, bringing up that part of their lives this way, but if Eddie is going to criticize him, Buck has leverage to make his point.</p><p>-</p><p>
  <em>Protecting Eddie started like any other job. Lead singer of a country band touring the States one last time before splitting up and going their separate ways. Fans watching their every move, waiting hours in front of hotels and bars and trying to sneak backstage to meet their idol. Buck found it both endearing and pointless, but it didn’t matter. He was good at his job, no matter who the client was.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He never got too close, never let the relationship become too personal. Until Eddie. That man was so full of surprises that being his bodyguard almost didn’t feel like work. The more Buck got to know him, the easiest it was to believe Eddie was his friend, not his client. He wasn’t the idiot journalists painted him to be, or the violent husband the tabloids liked to call him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ve only punched a guy once, in a parking lot, after he made fun of my son,” Eddie said one night. “I was so full of rage I felt like I was burning from the inside.” It was the first time he opened up about that part of him, an answer too honest to give the reporters.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“If I'd been there I might've punched him too,” Buck commented then. It made Eddie laugh and Buck discovered how much he loved that sound. And maybe Buck was feeling more lonely than usual that night, or maybe for a moment he thought Eddie was all he’d ever wanted; either way, when Eddie leaned in to press a kiss on his lips Buck not only let him, he kissed him back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Days and nights passed by as they spent every moment they could with each other, kissing, fucking, talking, until it was time for the band to go back on the road.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It was a summer fling, it doesn’t mean anything,” Buck said after one last kiss. He didn’t believe his own words for a second, but what was he supposed to say? Ask Eddie not to leave? Tell him he’d wait for him to come back? He wasn’t fifteen anymore and this wasn’t a Grease sequel.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That would make for a good song,” Eddie replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Maybe you should dedicate it to me.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Maybe I will.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He never did write that song, but it didn’t matter. There was a hole in Buck’s heart after Eddie left, and no song could ever fill it. So he tried to fill it the only way he knew, with random encounters and meaningless kisses. Nothing more than a temporary remedy, but he kept hoping that one day it’d work. </em>
</p><p>-</p><p>“You weren't always like that, Buck,” Eddie says.</p><p>“Why do you care?”</p><p>Eddie’s right, Buck wasn’t alway like that. But it was all Eddie’s fault, even if Eddie didn’t realize it. Loving Eddie and then losing him changed Buck. All those years and Buck still couldn’t forget what they had, even if he’d watched Eddie move on a long time ago. Even if he did his best to accept that they would never be anything other than friends anymore, his love for Eddie never really went away.</p><p>“That’s what best friends do. I’m still your best friend, right? Or do you plan on replacing me for that too?”</p><p>-</p><p>
  <em>Buck was doing fine on his own, really. He was still good at his job. Lonely, maybe, but that wasn’t new.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Then Eddie came back. “I’m moving to LA,” he said. “We’re giving it another chance, me and Shannon. See if it works, for Chris.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When it didn’t work, Buck was there for Eddie, and for Christopher. As a friend. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>When Eddie started making stupid choices to cope with the frustration of his life falling apart, Buck moved in with them. As a friend.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They found a way to make it work. Like friends do.</em>
</p><p>-</p><p>“Why would I replace you, Eds?” Buck asks. Eddie’s always been afraid of being replaced, but not with Buck. Never with Buck. </p><p>“I don’t know.” Eddie shrugs. “I don’t care.”</p><p>“You don’t look like someone who doesn’t care, man.”</p><p>Eddie shakes his head, looking at the ground.</p><p>“No, seriously, Eddie, why do you care so much? You know who I am and it’s never been an issue before, so why now?”</p><p>“Maybe part of me hoped you’d calm down. Become an adult, like the rest of us. Settle down.”</p><p>“Settle down? With who?” Buck asks, taking a few steps to close the distance between them. There’s no one else Buck wants in his life, only Eddie, even if Eddie would never feel that way too.</p><p>Eddie opens his mouth to speak but changes his mind, leaving Buck with only questions.</p><p>“I’ll find something else, if you’re worried about the rent,” Buck says, softening his voice, wondering what could possibly be going on in Eddie’s mind to make him suddenly upset about something Buck’s been doing for years now.</p><p>“I’m not worried about the rent.”</p><p>“What, then?” He rests his hand on Eddie’s cheek, thumb brushing his skin, waiting for his best friend to find the words, but all Eddie does is stare at Buck.</p><p>Buck sighs, letting his hand fall down. He starts moving away but Eddie stops him with a hand on his wrist. With his other hand he grabs Buck’s neck and pulls him closer again before crashing their lips together.</p><p>It takes Buck a second to register what’s going on but then he’s kissing Eddie back, tasting Eddie’s soft lips like it’s the first time.</p><p>“Settle down with me,” Eddie whispers against Buck’s mouth.</p><p>“Yes,” Buck blurts out, letting his heart speak up, pressing another kiss onto Eddie’s lips. This is everything he ever dreamed of, but. “I mean, what? Eddie, wait, just--” He takes a step back, his hands still framing Eddie’s face, gazing at him. Eddie’s eyes are shining and full of hope and Buck is lost. Lost in them and lost about what on Earth is going on. Since when did Eddie feel this way about him?</p><p>“It never was just a summer fling for me, Buck.”</p><p>The words feel familiar and Buck wants to ask, but Eddie’s looking at him like he’s the Eighth Wonder of the World, so that question will have to wait.</p><p>“I know it was, for you. A summer fling. But it was so much more for me,” Eddie says. “I don't think I was ever really able to move on. I kept thinking about you, every day and every night since the moment I left to go back on tour.”</p><p>“You never said anything.”</p><p>“I came back and you seemed happy, flirting with every pretty face that came your way. I didn’t think you felt the same.” He shrugs. “I was happy being your friend, you know. Just having you in my life any way I could.”</p><p>“Eddie, why do you think I distract myself with every other client I meet? I’ve wanted you since the day we met, and it wasn’t a fling for me either. But when you came back you were trying to save your marriage, what was I supposed to say?”</p><p>“My marriage ended a long time ago.”</p><p>“Yet you waited all this time to make your move,” Buck says with a grin. “Idiot.”</p><p>“Hey, remind me who’s the idiot who got fired for--”</p><p>Buck cuts him off with a soft kiss. “I was going through a phase.” He kisses Eddie again. “Trying to get over you.” Another kiss. “Didn’t work.”</p><p>Eddie wraps his arms around Buck, burying his face in the crook of Buck’s neck. “I’m glad it didn’t.”</p><p>“I’m glad you made a move. <em>Following your heart’s desire, things turning out for the better</em>,” Buck singsongs.</p><p>“Are you quoting my own song at me?”</p><p>“You did write some good stuff, it’s not my fault it got stuck in my head.”</p><p>Eddie hums. “Maybe I should write new songs if I don’t want to hear the same lyrics over and over, then.”</p><p>“I’d love to hear them,” Buck says with a smile. “And I’d love nothing more than to settle down with you, Eddie Diaz. Just in case I wasn’t clear enough earlier.”</p><p>Buck may have lost his job, but he’s gained a love he knew would last forever, with a man he’s never letting go of ever again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! You can find it on tumblr <a href="https://theladyandthewolves.tumblr.com/post/627262125445939200/guard-my-heart-with-your-heart">there</a>.<br/>Kudos, emoji and comments are deeply loved ♥</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>